Blank screen after Splash Screen

[CecilXavier]

I have a dell dimensions pc with xp home (I could not find an xp home forum under OS's). When the system boots it will show the xp splash screen then go to a blank screen. I have tried booting into safe mode. This displays the normal verbiage on the screen then locks on the last on doing nothing after that. The last thing it stops on is agp440.sys I have just enabled boot logging to see what happens. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I was thinking video driver, but I cannot boot into VGA mode nore safe mode of any kind. I can view the entire HDD when I plug it into another computer. Chkdsk comes back with no errors.

 

[CecilXavier]

Update:
In the boot log there are several drivers not loaded. they are:

ndproxey.sys
lbrtfdc.sys
sfloppy.sys
i2omgmt.sys
changer.sys
cdaudio.sys
i8042prt.sys
pcidump.sys

the last thing to load is cdfs.sys

 

[goombawaho]

Did you leave it alone for a good 15 minutes when trying to boot to safe mode??? It could have been doing a CHKDSK and you wouldn't have known it while it was booting into safe mode. You might check the hard drive light - if busy, it's doing a Chkdsk. If not, you're hosed.

If safe mode doesn't lead you anywhere, do a manual system restore to get you back in time a few days. Follow this procedure.

· Using BartPE run checkdisk. "chkdsk c: /f"

replace all registry files (5 of them) with a backup copy per this document. Reboot after.

http://www.icompute.info/restore_with_B_PE_disk.htm

 

[linney]

Will it load the Recovery Console?

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

You could try running ChkDsk /r from within that.

The hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.

If you were to get BartPE, or any other self contained booting recovery software, it would interesting to know if any of them can access the hard drive. There are links and suggestions in this thread.

Cannot logon to winxp...losing lots of valuable documents
thread779-975236

What was the last thing you installed, or what were you doing on the machine, just prior to the crash?

In the ntbtlog.txt lots of unneeded drivers may be reported as not loading, I am not sure you can draw any conclusions from that.

 

[goombawaho]

If for any reason, you suspect that the hard drive might be having a physical problem (or even if you don't expect it), you might get the manufacturer's test on a bootable CD and run that to verify the integrity of the drive.

After all, a hardware problem will trump all software solutions.

The ultimate boot cd has most manufacturer's hard drive test.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

(don't click on the yellow box - the links are further down the page).

 

[CecilXavier]

As I stated, chkdsk comes back with no errors. From windows or recovery console booted from the xp disc. I have plugged this HDD into another xp pc and I can view it's files fine. I will try restoring the backup's registry and see what happens. Any other Ideas?

 

[guitarzan]

goombawaho suggested running the HD manufacturer's test, not just chkdsk. I actually had a similar problem to yours once, and in my case a "chkdsk /f" DID find and fix the problem preventing the machine from booting. But even though you already ran chkdsk, I wouldn't automatically rule out a hard drive problem.

 

[CecilXavier]

Something to do with software. Client stated there was nothing needed on the HDD. Nuke and reinstall worked.

 

[goombawaho]

But did you run a hard disk diagnostic utility against the drive??

Never assume the drive is okay - especially before you go to the trouble of reloading the operating system. You may find that it runs fine for a short period and then it will start to crap out again IF it was a problem associated with the drive. Just fair warning, symptoms might disappear..... for a while.

 

[G0AOZ]

Easy to say it after the event, but I'd guess malicious software might have been the cause of the Desktop no show...

If it's a business machine, I'd do as Goom suggested, and I'd also run Memtest86. Happy clients usually come back again...

ROGER - G0AOZ.